MEDIA MATTERS

Saturday

Nov 29, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By RANDY WRIGHT

For the first time in decades, the Columbia radio market will have competing audience survey companies, and, while it might be hard to believe, a battle of the ratings research leaders will occur here in Boone County.

Surprisingly, traditional television ratings company Nielsen recently announced a new partnership with corporate radio giants Cumulus and Clear Channel to provide a competitive radio ratings service in 50 U.S. markets. Columbia is one of those markets, and beginning in the third quarter of next year, Nielsen will provide radio ratings in our market in addition to the four television audience surveys it provides for subscribing stations KMIZ, Fox38, KZOU and KRCG.

Nielsen is no stranger to radio measurement. It has been measuring radio audiences around the globe for decades but until now has stuck to television in the United States. The service will use Nielsen's "sticker diary," which it says is proven and easy to use and easy to edit.

Also, in what it claims is an improvement over the "status quo" (meaning Arbitron), Nielsen will use address-based sampling to recruit sample households.

Satellite radio on the ropes?

Because the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of satellite radio competitors Sirius and XM not much has been said about the financial status of the new entity.

The financial troubles of each company was the driving force behind their merger, but the new Sirius XM Radio still posted a net loss of $4.88 billion mainly because of an impairment charge over the fall of the sat-caster's stock price after its 2007 merger announcement.

The company also has nearly $1 billion in loans due next year and said it is negotiating with creditors to handle its debt. Even operating as a monopoly, the final chapter of Sirius XM is shaping up to be an ugly and potentially silent one. Time will tell, but a challenging economy doesn't bode well for a service that charges listeners for what terrestrial broadcasters have been providing free for decades.

TV/Internet synergy

The Nielsen Co.'s new TV/Internet Convergence Panel, which electronically measures both television and Internet usage in the same homes, has found that television viewing and online video streaming are complementary activities.

According to the panel, the heaviest users of the Internet also are among the heaviest viewers of television: The top fifth of Internet users spend more than 250 minutes per day watching television, compared to 220 minutes of television viewing by people who do not use the Internet at all.

Nielsen found that the reverse is true as well - the lowest consumers of television have the lowest Internet usage levels. Nielsen also found that nearly 31 percent of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, demonstrating that there is a significant amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage. Conversely, about 4 percent of television viewing occurs when the consumer also is using the Internet.

DTV updates

The U.S. Senate last Thursday approved legislation that would allow broadcasters to provide emergency messages and billboards over their analog signal for 30 days past the Feb. 17 digital transition date.

The bill passed unanimously on a voice vote. The Short-Term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness (SAFER) Act has the support of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the George W. Bush administration. The House cannot vote on the bill until it reconvenes on Dec. 8.

In a statement, National Association of Broadcasters Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton said, "Coupled with our billion-dollar campaign to educate Americans on the digital TV transition, this timely legislation will give broadcasters one final resource to ensure that no TV viewer is left behind due to insufficient information."

? Earlier this week, a number of engineers and managers from television stations across Missouri and Kansas met with representatives of the FCC in Kansas City to assess consumer readiness for the DTV transition and to discuss the most pressing issues facing the industry and viewers.

The consensus: Much has been accomplished, but there still are a large number of viewers who haven't addressed some of the issues that will impair their ability to continue receiving over-the-air television after Feb. 17.

In the next Media Matters, we'll devote some time to covering those issues and what has to be done to make sure viewers aren't left in the dark. Think about how many televisions you have in your home that aren't hooked up to cable or satellite and don't have digital receivers - bathrooms, kitchens, garages, workshops, basements, etc. All those old analog sets will be rendered useless you take some action. We'll tackle some of these issues in two weeks.

Happy Thanksgiving

Finally, I want to use some space here to give thanks for the many things those of us in the media have to be thankful for.

First, we live in a city that's economically about as healthy as it can be. While we're all concerned about what next year will bring, living and doing business in a city and market where the foundations of our economy are higher education, insurance, health care and state government is a real blessing.

I'm thankful for the University of Missouri, which has a strong School of Journalism that continues to invest in the future of our industry. The Reynolds Journalism Institute is one-of-a-kind, and I'm proud it calls Mizzou and Columbia home. I hold a master's degree from the J-school, and our TV stations employ a number of Mizzou and J-school grads. We're all proud to be Tigers.

Finally, I appreciate the opportunity to work with so many good media and marketing people who I truly believe care about what they do and the effect it has on our community. While the current economic environment has challenges, we're all fortunate to call Columbia home. Happy Thanksgiving.

Randy Wright is executive vice president of JW Broadcasting, general manager of KMIZ-TV and general partner of 1019 The Wave radio. Reach him at randyw@kmiz.com.